Radman kind of called me out in another thread. I felt I owed you guys some new photos. I took them all today.
First up some pictures of how things have recovered. Here's my favorite King Palm. It suffered 75% defoliation, and is 100% back on track.
Here's my Cuban Royal right after the freeze (l), and this morning (r).
This message was edited Sep 23, 2007 6:52 PM
My Dypsis lutescens survived the freeze fine. Today I removed about 20 trunks, and got it down to the 7-8 ones I wanted to keep.
My Parajubaea torallyi is giving me split leaves this summer. Sorry for the clutterered photo. That thing on the left has to go, and the BOP needs trimming.
My Bismarckia is growing without a hitch. It's chunkier than most I've seen.
This Sabal "riverside" seemed to get established fast. Already has split leaves. Love the blue.
I found this Butia capitata at Armstrong Nursery for $29. It was in a 5g pot.
As many of you know, I work a couple Saturday's a month at Tropical Vibe in Orange County. The best part is digging around in the greenhouse for palms Johnny hasn't gotten to potting up yet. Check out this Archontophoenix alexandrae. It was in a 1 gallon pot a week ago! That's a 5g it's in now.
This message was edited Sep 23, 2007 7:10 PM
Here's another TP score. Sabal mauritiiformis, now in a 5g pot. A week ago it was in a LINER!
This Archontophoenix myolensis was appropriately in a 1g pot. It's speed of growth makes it my favorite Archontophoenix, beating purpurea by a leaflet.
Johnny was growing a bunch of 1g Dypsis onilahensis in full sun. For those not familiar with this one, it eventually looks like a Kentia with a crownshaft, only much droopier fronds.
I got some palms from elsewhere also. Here's my Phoenix rupicola. It's latest leaves have been much fatter than previous ones.
This Burretiokentia hapala was given to me as a gift. One of the best palms for Southern California.
Parajubaea sunkha from Jungle Music. Possibly even coldharier than P. torallyi.
This is the last one. I killed the Rhopalostylus sapida by improperly planting it. Here is it's replacement.
Wow Terry....I am glad I called you out......Your palms recovery is awesome. Your Bismarckia is fat with twice if not more than mine with great color. I also took some pictures today but will post in the next few days....Went to Costco and bought my girl a new lcd tv for the bedroom and a few heaters for the greenhouse, which I am setting up right now. Got to keep the heat up above 65 in there for the seeds I am tring to germinate......Love all your Pictures..........Next up FOF
Curt
Here are a few of my palms that made it through the freeze this winter: this is Attalea cohune I grew from seed about 8 years ago... still only about 3' tall, but it's starting to make split leaves. got a tad fried this winter, but it is also just a foot from the house, so that helped
This is one of my Bismarckias, that, amazingly, had survived two moves... it is getting a bit stretched since there are papaya trees growing over it (were under it 6 months ago)... the papayas were melted to stumps in january and one died.. .but the other two came back and are now about 5' and 8' tall. The Bis was not affected
This is one of my all time favorite palms (that I own): Livistona alfredii.. .a very hard palm to find. Got it as a one leaf seedling 7 years ago from someone just back from Australia and he germinated it for me. It is just about ready to make what we could call a trunk and is really picking up speed. Since it lives in a raised planter box I think that helped it survive the freeze... maybe it would have anyway, but I sure don't want to test it... this is probably my most irreplaceable palm.
Not a palm- a Pandanus... not sure what species.. .was sold to me as P fruticosum, but there is no such thing.. probably tectoris/tectorum. Nasty thing. Burn is from sun, not cold. About my height now
This is another rarity, at least at this size here in California- a Syagrus schizophylla with 2' of trunk. Bought it last year with 2' of trunk (hasn't grown much)... found it in a nursery going out of business and was pretty cheap... one of the slowest Syagrus you can grow in California (there are slower, but not many). It lost most of its leaves in the freeze, but they were greenhouse leaves, so they were probaby going to lost anyway. These leave are new and wonderfully tough feeling- sort of like a cycad. Next to it, just in the pic, is Wallichia disticha, a much faster growing palm, and will be towering over this Syagrus in just another couple years. It had NO damage from the freeze.
Here's another slow Syagrus, S yungensis, but a LOT faster than schizophylla. It is growing pretty well and no damage from freeze, but is growing in a small bed covered with shade cloth, so that's cheating.
This is my most amazing palm- Archonto myolensis... was dead after the freeze, or so I thought (the other two that died really did die).. but this one kept one green leaf, but then the spike pulled out... most crownshafted palms that lose a spike are hopeless... yet 9 months later (just a few weeks ago) this dinky little leaf worked its way out of the fungal goo below in the deep, sinky hole that used to hold the new leaves... amazing. Still, now it's cooling off I will be lucky if it makes it through this winter, even if it's mild... but if it does, it should be OK by next winter.
This is one of only two Chamaedoreas that didn't get zapped by the cold... a few of the others survived, barely, but this plant didn't even get burned. Only the Chamaedorea oreophila managed the freeze similarly. I frankly don't know what this is.. showed up as a volunteer in a pot that had something else that has since died. Nice suckering palm and a fast grower. Next to it are Rhapis excelsa (no problem with cold) and an unknown Sansevieria (5' tall) also no problem with the cold, and Livistona saribus (also no problem with the cold)
This message was edited Sep 23, 2007 9:17 PM
This is Lytocaryum hoehnei (spelling?)... used to a be super rare, but Jeff marcus has been selling a lot of them. This had no problem with cold either, but shade cloth over head.
This is my one of my two remaining Archonto purpureas... this one is living basically behind the Rhapis and literally touching the wall of the house- that is all that saved it... lost all the others save one in a more protected area far from here. Burn on that leaf is from sun (only gets direct sun 1 month in middle of summer, so not much chance to acclimate to it)
This message was edited Sep 23, 2007 9:19 PM
This trachycarpus martianus is looking good now, but I was shocked by how hard it got hit by freeze (basically defoliated, save one partially yellow-brown leaf)... always was under the impression all Trachys were super cold hardy - NOT So! Trachy nanus was similar defoliated... yet both came back. My T princeps also had problems- spike pulled out, but it came back instantly.
This is Syagrus coronata... been through some tough times with this palm.. been dug up 4 times... and still lived to tell about it, though each dig defoliated it. The freeze ALSO defoliated it.. .so that is 5 defoliations this poor plant has gone through since I bought it from Bergman over 10 years ago... no wonder it is still making bizarre leaves. But, barring another weird freeze, it's gonna make it now. No more moves planned.
Licuala ramsayi.. not a super hardy palm.. growing against a wall and still severe leaf damage. but alive!
Dypsis fasciculata is another nice surprise.. .growing in a pot on the porch, so probably didn't experience nearly the same cold as other palms did.. but not even a hint of cold damage. This is not a beauty, but still, interesting and rare. Nice mottled stem. Just not great leaves. Photo is at an angle in case you were wondering.
This is another one of my favorites and another difficult palm to replace (at this size).. but no cold damage at all- Ravenea xerophila. This one is planted up in a planter box so a tad protection advantage there.
Livistona victoriae... slow slow slow. Not the best place to be growing it, in a sunken planter bed... but it didn't get hit by cold there. Still, this palm was same size as the livistona alfredii about 5 years ago, and is way behind it now. Not sure if I will live long enough to see this palm make a trunk.
This is Livistona fulva... was sure this was dead, too. Lost all its leaves and lost the spike... .yet just 5-6 days after the spike pulled I could already see action down in the hole. Now it has 9 new leaves... that's more than a leaf a month, nearly unprecented growth in my yard!
Second to last recovery I'll bore you with for now... this is Pritchardia lanaiensis.. another come-back-from-the-dead palm... spike pulled and all. I noticed that fan palms are much more tolerant losing spikes and coming back to life than feather palms, with crownshafted palms being the least likely to come back. Sadly my other Pritchardia didn't resurect itself after its spike pulled.. oh well... already a new Pritchardia in its place.
Not much to look at... but it's alive and has at least two green leaves... a lot more than i can say for it 9 months ago. Didn't hurt this Wodyetia lives inches from the house and gets all day sun, even in winter.
palmbob - Glad you had so many survivors. I'm going to give all my potted palms a chance to fill the can with roots, and plant them next Spring. You have some really obscure ones there. I'm pretty sure I'll pick up a Syagrus sancona next week. Of all the Syagrus it strikes me as the best combo of quick grow and coldhardy (besides the queen).
I'm holding out for a good deal on an A. purpurea. I might steal that venturan-guy's idea and do a myolensis-alexandrae-purpurea triple.
That Trachy martianus is a very nice fan, I would never guess it had seen damage.
this is my measly excuse for S sancona... definitely NOT the most hardy of syagrus.. in fact, got burned the worst of any of mine, and it was under protection of shade cloth. I had one that grew to 10 in Thousand Oaks and wiped out completely by a freeze that only barely touched the Raphia farninfera (a pretty cold sensitive palm) right next to it... I would NOT rate this as a cold hardy Syagrus.. in fact, I would consider it one of the least cold hardy of all the Syagrus you can grow here, save S cearenis and S pseudococos. Be careful planting yours in harm's way. Nice looking palm, but a total wimp when it comes to cold. There are a lot of nice ones in So Cal but all are in very 'friendly' climates.
I was ironically basing my S. sancona expectations on info from the Southern California Palm Guide. I'm totally open to a different Syagrus, and that coronata looks like a winner, especially if I only plant it once!
The only other syagrus available at Tropical Vibe are even less coldhardy:
S. amara, S. botryphora, S. pseudococcos, and S. x-costae.
true... that is a bunch of sensitive ones.. forgot about those.. had an S botryophora nearby that did die that same storm I fried the sancona... never tried costae. S amara is still alive in my yard, and about 8' tall now.. but growing against a wall and under shade cloth (though not anymore... above the shade cloth now.. .could be a tough road ahead for it). S coronata is a great palm and very neat, tidy looking (if not moved too often)... and pretty drought tolerant once left in one place long enough.
Thanks for showing us all of your palms, guys. Glad that the majority came through ok. I have been meaning to take pictures of mine after Radmans urgings to participate more! I have so many though and they are spread out all over, but I will this week.
what do you all think about the cold hardiness of Dypsis decipens? Did anyone have one in the ground out there in Ca when the cold came in Jan, and if so-how did it do, and how cold was it? Any other palms that might be good to experiment with if I have the right microclimate and willing to protect when very cold? I want to go past Butia capitata, the Phoenix species etc.
